Foods to avoid in pregnancy

Food and drink to avoid

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Healthy eating during pregnancy is as much about which foods to avoid as which foods to eat. Some food may harm your baby as well as making you ill, so food safety needs to be a priority. Now that you’re pregnant, you should really leave the following foods out of your diet:

Undercooked or raw eggs, or foods likely to be made with them (home-made mousses and mayonnaise, may contain raw eggs). Eggs should be cooked until hard.

Undercooked or very rare meat and fish – there should be no pink bits left (even if that’s the way you usually like it!).

Liver and liver pâté – these can have excessive amounts of vitamin A which can harm your baby.

Pâté – avoid all types of pâté, even vegetable.

Swordfish, marlin and shark. These fish can contain potentially unsafe levels of mercury which can harm your baby’s developing nervous system. Tuna also contains mercury, so limit the amount you eat to up to four medium-size cans (140g drained weight, per can) OR two fresh steaks (up to 170g raw weight, per steak) a week.

Alcohol – drinking while you’re pregnant can cause long-term harm to your baby. The more you drink, the greater the risk, so it’s best not to touch it.

Caffeine – found in tea, coffee, cola and chocolate. High levels can lead to low birth weight in babies or even a miscarriage. Don't have more than 200mg a day (2 mugs of instant coffee, 2 mugs of tea or 4 cups of green tea).

Foods with soil on them – wash fruit, vegetables and salads, so there’s no trace of any soil or dirt.